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Imagery intelligence company Allsource Analysis, which just launched out of Longmont in March, is out to solve some pretty big world problems in the financial, energy and government sectors with top-notch satellite imagery and analysis of it.
Let's say an oil facility in Iraq was overtaken by terrorists. That’s a big problem right? The people who need the most information about this would be competitors in the oil industry and environmental experts that want to know how it is operating and the government which wants to know about it for security and financial reasons. It’s situations like this where “there is such a critical need” and an overlap between multiple emerging sectors that Allsource Analysis (ASA) steps in to leverage its expertise.
From the CIA to Digital Globe: sprouting from deep industry roots
The expertise stems from ASA’s founding team: combined, they have over 75 years of experience. CEO Stephen Wood spent his early years in the CIA doing satellite imagery and analysis before joining Longmont-based commercial space imagery vendor Digital Globe. Chief Analytics Officer Joseph Bermudez was an analyst for British open-source intelligence company IHS Jane before also joining Digital Globe. At Digital Globe, the two met CMO Chuck Herring.
The team of three left Digital Globe last year and just got things running late this winter with about six contracts. Now, they have raised $500,000 so far to get more long-term contracts in the works.
“We always wanted to start a company, to feel like we had a bit more agility,” Herring said of his co-founders. The timing was perfect as the licensing industry was being commercialized.
ASA still maintains ties to Digital Globe though leveraging its satellites (along with seven Airbus satellites) to get their high-quality images.
ASA’s main draw: unparalleled expertise
It’s not just about the satellites though. Allsource is living up to its name in that it doesn’t just get information from a single source. In fact they have one dedicated team member (of their 5-person team) who gathers “what happened and the circumstances leading up to it. Anybody can find this surrounding information, but you just need an expert to get it packaged.”
This expertise is the main sell, really. ASA is helping industries make decisions with information that they didn’t even know they had access to. They are doing this by analyzing images and their context and presenting it in the simplest way: “We are leaning towards simpler. We are finding more and more that a guy who is dealing with competitive intelligence at an energy company just wants a PDF that gives the final answer.”
Turning decision-making power into an e-commerce model
Down the line, Allsource will be selling this expertise via an e-commerce model. Although not completely set in stone, Herring said it will be structured more or less by small, medium and large analysis packages. The smallest package includes a quick “discovery” phase while the largest package includes analysis and deep insights; each will be priced as one-off purchases or will be included in an annual ASA subscription. This model will satisfy people who are passionate about satellite imagery (many ex-military and ex-intelligence employees are, Herring said) and will solve problems for those knee-deep in critical decision-making (anything from checking in on facilities to monitoring a competitor's fracking site).
These simple answers don’t mean simple problems though (as problems in the energy, financial and government sectors rarely are): “Most of what we deal with is what people want an answer to quickly because lives are on the line or there are huge financial implications.”
Images courtesy of Allsource Analysis
